Sir Bob Elliott

Sir Bob Elliott studied medicine at the University of Adelaide from 1951 to 1956. After working as a house surgeon in Blenheim, New Zealand, he trained in paediatric medicine in Adelaide and Denver, Colorado. He was appointed as a senior lecturer at Adelaide in 1963, and in 1970 he moved to the new University of Auckland School of Medicine as the foundation Professor of Paediatrics.

In establishing the Department of Paediatrics, he made many notable cultural changes to improve the care and outcomes of children, which have a lasting legacy. He was critical of paediatric care in Auckland and did much to improve it, from the bricks and mortar to the workforce, especially encouraging and training future paediatricians. He was an inspirational teacher.

Almost 50 years ago, Sir Bob co-founded the Child Health Research Foundation – now Cure Kids –with Dr Ron Caughey and the support of Rotary. He created the position of Chair of Child Health Research, first held by David Lines and then by Sir Bob himself for 21 years (1977-99). He had the foresight to know that unless we started investing specifically in child health research, New Zealand would drop further down the OECD health rankings. Cure Kids is now the largest funder of child health research outside the government.

Sir Bob was an outstanding researcher, and the breadth of his research was truly astounding. He did the innovative work that suggested the health benefits of A2 milk, which was commercialised. He also pioneered the transplantation of insulin-producing pig cells into humans to treat type 1 diabetes (Living Cell Technologies).